The Estonian Foundation of Canada worked together with the team of Jõekääru campaign organizers to launch this pilot-project. The Foundation is now offering the same opportunity to other Estonian community groups, free of charge.
“The Foundation would like Estonian organizations interested in trying this online fundraising tool to approach us,” says Estonian Foundation of Canada President Lia Hess. “To avoid donor-fatigue, we will work with organizations one at a time to stagger their fundraising campaigns.”
Whether an organization is planning a big event or short campaign, the Friendship Powered Fundraising platform is a tool to help organizations raise more money for their respective causes. Supporters are turned online-fundraisers by allowing them to create their own fundraising pages, to which they invite their friends. They can then ask friends to donate to that special cause using email, Facebook and Twitter.
People use web, social and mobile channels everyday. Jõekääru's Lia Kaljurand was instrumental in getting the JK 60 online fundraising program off the ground. “I can think of many events that are coming up in the Estonian community that, if paired with an online fundraising campaign, could potentially bring in donations,” says Kaljurand.
Kaljurand points out that a large number of donors to the JK60 fundraising campaign were not active in the Estonian community. “I would say that 60% of the online donations generated through the Friendship Powered Fundraising platform for Jõekääru were from non-Estonians or Estonians who are not actively involved in our community,” states Kaljurand.
The Foundation has turned to offering the Friendship Powered Fundraising platform to affiliated groups, because the reality is that donations are down. “The Foundation is working hard to come up with creative ways to make it easier and possibly even enjoyable for more people to monetarily supporting the community,” explains Estonian Foundation of Canada President Lia Hess.
There are genuine challenges for charities whose core donor base consists of those who survived the Second World War. “In general, our present-day senior citizens are still the most significant and consistent donors, but their ranks are shrinking,” Hess further remarks. “The tradition of financially supporting charities is not as ingrained with the next generations of baby boomers, Gen-Xers and GenY's. Therefore the Foundation has to do everything possible to effectively communicate with younger generations using the communication technology they use. Offering the user-friendly Friendship Powered Fundraising platform to the community makes sense.”
But the Foundation needs community groups to come on board to make this a reality. “We are turning to the organizations receiving funding from the Estonian Foundation of Canada to let them know that we really need their help to improve the trend of decreased donations – they are our partners in generating donations,” stresses Hess. “Less donations to the Foundation translates into less money available to fund Estonian community programs — this is the stark reality.”
Hess concedes that there are many Estonians who see their contribution through the time that they generously offer to various community organizations. That said, many of them have never donated financially to the Foundation. “If we could convince every Canadian Estonian to donate even as little as $25, can you imagine what we could be able to offer the community? It would be astounding.”
To find out more about the Friendship Powered Fundraising tool being offered in the Estonian community, please contact the Foundation office directly at 416-465-5600 or info@estonianfoundation.ca.
